From Doubt to Success. From Manual to Automated Welding

Let's take a look at one of our real production sites. This particular company is a bridge fabricator.?

High-mix production

Conventionally, most bridge structures worldwide are welded manually. Implementing robots in this process presents a significant challenge because each bridge part appears custom from a robot's perspective.

First, like most metalwork, bridge structures are pre-assembled by hand, which always results in small deviations - after all, people can’t weld with extreme accuracy by eye alone.?

And besides, bridge structures are usually huge and can get deformed during welding. Here is one of our favorite photos. See how curved the bridge beam is, about 4 inches off.

Therefore, traditionally, many manufacturers held the belief that robots were simply not applicable to their production. But to think so is a big mistake. Now that robots have become smart and adaptive thanks to machine vision and algorithms, they no longer need to be programmed. So, it becomes possible to effectively use robots for custom projects and even one-of-a-kind parts.?

Robotic Cell

Let’s take a look inside a factory of one of our customers. Before ABAGY, there was only one robot and it was possible to weld only one type of part, the simplest of parts, due to programming difficulties.?

The company then decided to install a new robotic cell with ABAGY software. Here are two robots, on tracks. The customer preference is Kuka for the robots and Fronius for the power sources.?

With a generous working area of 10 feet by 60 feet, they can easily accommodate long beams or multiple small parts simultaneously. The two robots can either weld a single part together or handle different parts simultaneously.

Overall, this one cell can weld approximately 50 different parts each month.

Workflow

Here, a part is loaded into the working area using a crane. With the traditional approach, you would have to place the part very, very accurately. And when it is such a heavy beam, it is extremely difficult to do this. In the case of ABAGY, the part is placed freely, without any zero points. Whatever way it's convenient to position. After all, the robots will be able to see where exactly it is.

And here is a digital twin of the robotic cell. The operator uploads a 3D model of their product into the software in any CAD format. The system then automatically detects all welds. Next, you need to set the welding parameters.

Here is an example of an orthotropic deck. Just out of curiosity, we measured how long it takes to create the task plan for this part: it takes only 6 minutes for 85 seams. It is important to say that it is enough to create a task plan only once, then the system saves the data and you no longer need to enter it again.

Next, the robots scan the part in the work area using machine vision. This is what the results look like. This is how robots see. Green dots indicate that the part matches the previously loaded 3D model. Red dots show where the part deviates from the 3D model. This allows robots to adapt to all changes.

We can see that the scan results are good. Therefore, the operator confirms them. Welding begins.?

Robots in this production work 24/7. Different employees can control them, and a specialized skill set is not always necessary. If there are questions, the support team is ready to help - also 24/7.

Benefits

Here are some stats they achieved: 3 times cost reduction and 5 times throughput increase.

Additionally: they saved money on grinding, wire, and welding gas costs. Also, they secured additional savings by the system catching assembly defects before welding would commence.

After that, the company decided to launch some more new cells. Here is a robotic cell with a gantry.?

Here is another one, also with a gantry. And note, that on this cell, they recently welded a beam 75 feet long.

At the present moment, they weld most of their parts with robots, despite the fact that they have high-mix production.

With ABAGY, robotic cells' configurations can vary:

• One or multiple robots
• One or multiple work areas
• With or without external axes (tracks, gantry systems, positioners, rotators, etc.)

You can find the 40 most popular robotic cell configurations at the link.

Tell us in the comments what production tasks you are interested in.

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Best wishes,

ABAGY Robotic Systems?team.

abagy.com

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